GOOGLE SMOOTHLY SHIFTS ITS DRIVERLESS-CAR AMBITION INTO A HIGHER GEAR.

Our beloved tech giant, Google has hired John Krafcik as the head of its driverless car project. Krafcik was earlier the president of TrueCar.

According Krafcik and many others, the development of cars so advanced in technology that they drive themselves without any kind of help from humans to free us from the burden of driving (which can get very frustrating at times), is an amazing thing to do and is going to be the future of the automotive business.

Google had unveiled the prototype of these driver-less cars last year and had declared that their mass production will start in the year 2020. Uber is actively supporting this venture of Google because it considers driver-less vehicles to be the potential solution to the ongoing problems with human drivers. Many leading automakers like Mercedes-Benz, Ford and General Motors have all expressed a similar belief that more driverless cars could possibly hit the roads by 2020.

The high detailed road is mapped out by Google to help the car drive itself, which will help the car to identify signs, curbs, and other obstacles. The reason these cars will take years to come out for the masses is because its existing hardware in each car costs something around $250,000.

Around 33,000 Americans died last year in accidents related to automotives. Driverless cars are aimed to reduce and avoid accidents at all costs. It’s unclear as of yet how driverless cars will progress, but Google has previously said that it will most likely not manufacture these cars, but will license the technology to other automakers instead and partner with them.

Following Google’s lead, even Apple has started its own ambitious project of making driverless cars. If Apple enters this business, it will most likely sell the cars itself, unlike Google. These two are the only ones competing in this market, with the required cash and the talent to pose a serious threat to any other major automaker. Some of the existing prototype cars of Google have run into accidents with other vehicles. That only happened because humans were driving those cars. This project of Google could make road travel much safer and smoother.

This driver-less car project is the part of Google X, Google’s secret research lab. Now that this project has a CEO of its own, this could put the vehicle unit on a course to become a separately different entity from the Google X.

Everyone is praising Google’s recent decision of bringing in Krafcik to lead this project, because he has arguably the best hands on experience in the industry, appreciation for the technology, and he has a forward thinking. This move of Google will prove to be a demonstration of their commitment to billions of people and their constant efforts to transform the automotive business and make things easier for them. For long Google has been flirting with the idea of entering the auto business and to transform it for good.